best heating for conservatory

Thanks for all your replies and especially STEM who outlined all the options. As my proposed conservatory is also south facing I will have similar requirements and also will have similar usage.

Regarding UFH the majority of posters appear to confirm that it does take a while to warm up.( I was thinking of the electric version but the presumably the heat generated is the same as the wet system). As I fancied flooring with laminated tiles I dont think UFH is possible anyway. We are not going for ceramic tiles as apparently they can be exceedingly cold.

To hedge my bets I think I will lay pipes for central heating rads but cap them off. I doubt whether my boiler could cope with any increase at present but as the boiler is 20 years old any replacement will have a bigger output I will always have the option of connecting without hassle at at later date.

I note STEMS comments regarding air con and this may sway me to consider the convector heater route. Is your heater mounted on the dwarf wall and which one do you recommend.?

I have ordered a pilkington activ blue roof. Anyone had experience of this. My biggest concern is the glare factor. If it does what it claims to do them I should be O K

Cheers

In my con I plumbed into the main central heating pipework (back to back luckily) and fitted a good thermostatic rad valve. this way you can have it turned off completely/frost setting /full on.

The beauty of this is that when the solar heat builds up, the rad shuts off. It never shuts off in cold weather but at least it goes off when the main house shuts down on the central heating time clock.

It's certainly cheaper to use than electric heaters.

Having said that I have rigged up a neat Dimplex thermostatically controlled electric wall hung heater that fits neatly under the window cill (dwarf wall) about 300mm in height x 600mm long. Plugged into a cheap time control plug. This gives a welcome boost when the weather starts getting cold, set it for the times you want to use the con and forget about it.

I look at it this way, the pleasure of being out in the con is worth the few extra quid you are going to spend on gas/electric. £30 extra a year = 12 pints beer.

Good luck.

Word of advice from the wise. Don't even think about electric underfloor heating. We had a new conservatory built at our last house, and looked at the various options on heating. Considered electric oil filled wall mounted rads, then decided on electric ufh, due to having a tiled floor. The next electric bill after installation was a shocker - when I flicked up the thermostat and checked the electric meter, I was half expecting it to take off, it was whizzing round that fast. I then turned it off and flicked on the tumble drier for comparison. The drier was using less electric.

Word of advice from the wise. Don't even think about electric underfloor heating. We had a new conservatory built at our last house, and looked at the various options on heating. Considered electric oil filled wall mounted rads, then decided on electric ufh, due to having a tiled floor. The next electric bill after installation was a shocker - when I flicked up the thermostat and checked the electric meter, I was half expecting it to take off, it was whizzing round that fast. I then turned it off and flicked on the tumble drier for comparison. The drier was using less electric.

We have a customer with a large conservatory and the same issues.

We will be installing a Smiths Environmental fan assisted radiator coil; this is similar to a Kickspace heater but wall mounted. It will give a very quick warm up time and therefore is suitable for occasional use. The fan keeps the air circulating, minimising stratification, the radiator inside is fed off the main CH circuit.

Underfloor heating struggles to make up the heat loss in such a poorly insulated area in cold weather, and as discussed earlier, is not suitable for ad hoc use.

my mate who's a lecky fitted matted electric ufh in his conservatory telling me it wasn't dear to run. Heard a few weeks ago his winter quarterly bil last christmas shot from £250 to £800. can,t wait to see him. I fitted a gas stove in my south facing con in breach of regs. 7kw at 80% eff warms up nice on a cold day but tried it when -5 oC and it took 2 hrs & a lota gas to heat up. It is 6m x4.3m but it shows what your loosing when it would heat a room the same size in ya house in 15 - 20 mins. The advantage of a wet ufch is the heat will pass u on the way out through the roof making you feel warm rather than trying to circulate heat. Polyplumb do a overlay system you fit over a finished floor & u can tile or laminate straight over the pipes making it quick to heat up. Good option. Insulation boards not cheap though.

Bab-who much would it cost to do the Polyplumb overlay system and insulation boards? Can this be done yourself or do u need a specialist? size 9x 10 foot space.

Not sure how it breaks down in cost cos the polyplumb rep (site enginneer)comes out to size up & comes up with a total cost. thats only a small area so u would,nt need a proper manifold system. they will come out f.o.c to spec it out for you. need a heating flow & return to supply the system.

Bahco said:

I don't believe that central heated underfloor heating would take hours to heat up. In theory it should heat up as quickly as your other rads in the house, that is if your boiler is adequate!

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Sorry I wasn't clear in my previous post. The system with the slow warmup was with reference to those that have the electric underfloor heating, not the sort connected to the main central heating system.